Class Description: 7th Grade World history and 8th Grade U.S. history provides a rigorous, Common-Core, and Standards-based social studies curriculum focusing on understanding and citing specific sources, reading, writing, and listening and speaking. Students read primary and secondary sources that fuel class discussions and lead to analytical and expository writing. In our examining the written and spoken word, we focus on how language is used to communicate, inform, and persuade. The class requires students to read mindfully and to write deliberately.